Average
by whirlwinds of watercolours
Summary: Lisa Turpin was just your average schoolgirl. But when war rears its ugly head, things start to change.


**Summary: Lisa Turpin was just your average schoolgirl. But when war rears its ugly head, things start to change.**

**Rating: T for mentions of torture.**

**Word Count: 1502**

**Written for: the Unknown Character Competition; Dumbledore's Army: Still Recruiting Competition; Minor character Diversity Boot Camp; Character Diversity Boot Camp; Unnoticed Characters Challenge; Diagon Alley Challenge: Gringotts Wizarding Bank.**

**A/N: I know Lisa Turpin was never actually mentioned as one of the DA members, but for the sake of this fic, let's just ignore that one small deviation. The rest is canon-compliant.**

**My dear beta, _Emma Quinn_, has finally decided to put in her valuable two cents for this piece of writing after several long days. So here you go!**

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Lisa Turpin was your average schoolgirl. With acceptable grades mostly in the range of 'E's and occasionally getting an 'A' or 'O'; her excellent conduct such as never failing to hand in a single piece of homework on time and always trying her best to pay attention to the professor in class even when said professor could put the dead into a deep sleep and her spare time well-spent on socialising with friends and Quidditch practices, there was nothing special about her, nothing which made her stand out from the crowd. She was just plain old Lisa Turpin, and she liked that.

Up until her fourth year, Lisa enjoyed the happy bubble of life in which she encased herself. She basked in the endless days of innocence filled with laughter spent hanging out in the Hogwarts library with her friends, enjoyed all the fun Quidditch practices the Ravenclaw team held. But at the end of her fourth year, when Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, turned up with the dead body of Cedric Diggory after stumbling out of the Triwizard Tournament maze announcing the return of You-Know-Who, Lisa knew that those carefree days were about to come to a close and the entire world she had known was about to turn upside down.

The moment she stepped off the Hogwarts Express at the beginning of her fifth year, she knew that things were changing already.

Professor Umbridge was a total horror. That was saying something, considering their previous Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers had consisted of an incompetent wizard with You-Know-Who at the back of his head, a fraud, a werewolf, and a Death Eater disguised as an Auror. At least back in those days, they actually _did_ something useful during lessons, unlike the current curriculum. Defence Against the Dark Arts lessons nowadays only consisted of reading Defensive Theory, doing nothing practical.

Needless to say, most students were not pleased with this new arrangement. It meant that the first time they got to do the actual spells would be during the OWL exam itself, and that was not a comforting thought at all. What good did studying the theory do in the real world?

In addition, ridiculous rumours were now spreading about 'Dumbledore losing his touch'. For as long as she remembered, she had always respected and admired the clever headmaster, but now Cornelius Fudge along with the rest of the Ministry seemed intent on ruining his decent reputation.

With those thoughts in mind, Lisa made her decision: she would not be taking this lying down. She would be out there, doing something worthy.

Outright rebellion against Umbridge proved to be useless, and so she changed tactics. When a new idea was presented to her, she immediately accepted it.

Saturday morning, she made her way to the Hog's Head Inn in Hogsmeade. The bar was small, dark, and dingy, but she could not have cared less. She was here for a meeting, not for a drink.

To her surprise and delight, quite a few people appeared to have the same mind-set as her: opposing Umbridge but not outright rebelling against her. Her interest was also piqued when Harry Potter mentioned the return of You-Know-Who – she did not think he was lying; after all, the return of the greatest Dark wizard was no joking matter. From her few and far between encounters with Potter during class and on the Quidditch Pitch, she knew he was quite modest, not the attention-seeker the Ministry made him out to be.

So when Hermione Granger passed the parchment around the group of Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, and Ravenclaws, she did not hesitate to sign her name.

From the moment she penned her name onto that piece of parchment along with all the names of the others at the Hog's Head, her life, yet again, changed – hopefully for the better this time.

No longer was she just the average schoolgirl. She was now a member of Dumbledore's Army, rebelling against the Ministry of Magic by practicing Defence magic in secret. Even her parents were kept in the dark about this – they believed Professor Dumbledore to a certain extent, but she was sure they would not approve of her law breaking.

Most of her fifth year was spent alternating between sneaking in and out of the Room of Requirement, preparing for her OWLs, and avoiding the attention of Umbridge. Her parents always told her it was easier to blend in the crowd along with everyone else – and they were right. During Defence classes she always kept her head down and never spoke up, and as a result she never received a single detention from Umbridge – unlike Harry, who frequented her office.

At the end of the year, she was ecstatic to discover that Umbridge was chased from the school – by Peeves the troublemaker, no less – and that You-Know-Who's return was announced to the public. Professor Dumbledore and Harry Potter's claims were now justified.

Her sixth year was a huge difference from the excitement of her fifth. Life passed in blandness, since the DA had disbanded after Umbridge left and their Defence classes were back to normal. Her time was devoted to studying for the upcoming NEWTS next year and Quidditch. However, she still kept that fake Galleon Hermione made in her pocket, as a reminder of those untroubled days spent in the Room of Requirement sealed from the outside world of worries and dangers, a shadow of her first few years at Hogwarts.

The bland year, however, had a thrilling ending – the Death Eaters had broken into Hogwarts through the newly repaired Vanishing Cabinet, courtesy of Death Eater Draco Malfoy; Professor Dumbledore was killed on top of the Astronomy Tower; and the battle that had ensued after that was intense. Lisa was lucky enough to escape from the battle unscathed save for a few minor cuts and bruises.

Seventh year was a completely different story from sixth. Once a place of tranquillity, Hogwarts was now tumultuous and full of dangers around every corner – a sharp contrast to the past. It had been difficult, getting used to the mentality that Hogwarts was no longer the safe haven for her and the other students with the death of Dumbledore, Snape as the new headmaster and the presence of verified Death Eaters, Amycus and Alecto Carrow, as their teachers.

As a family of half-bloods, her parents had wanted to withdraw her from Hogwarts and go on the run when they saw the broken and battered state she was in when she emerged from the battle the previous year. But Lisa had been insistent – she was determined not let this unfair bigotry affect her and her studies. She was a member of Dumbledore's Army, and she would be damned if she took this lying down. Over her dead body.

Dumbledore's Army had re-formed, and she had contributed to the idea of writing messages on the wall. Every other night or so, one of the Army members would sneak out, writing provoking messages on the walls of the castles. She revelled in the delight of seeing the Carrows glare with hatred at the messages on the walls, and unsuccessfully trying to question to find out which member was the culprit.

However, things soon changed after Christmas with one of their leaders, Luna Lovegood, missing. Luna had been a sweet, innocent girl from her house, and Lisa shuddered to think what the nasty Death Eaters were doing to poor Luna.

They were still continuing their tactic of writing on the walls, although the messages were fewer when compared to the past. The Carrows had a gleam of rabid delight in their eyes during class now – they had sensed the resistance growing weaker, and their punishments had become harsher; the Unforgivables were used during class time as well instead of just during detention. Lisa was still continuing her original plan of blending in the crowd, but it became more and more challenging as the Death Eaters memorised the faces of those whose blood was pure and those who were of mixed blood – they had a tendency to pick on the half-bloods, although their treatment of blood traitors were no better.

The resistance was slowly going downhill – with the disappearance of Ginny Weasley and several others after Easter, hardly anyone dared to go outside of their dorms after curfew. A Caterwauling Charm had been placed outside their dorms and Slytherin prefects prowled the corridor, hopeful and eager to catch any Army members scrawling messages. The Carrows were now dealing out detentions to everyone but the Slytherins on a daily basis.

But even as she screamed under the effects of the Cruciatus Curse, the idea of giving up and running away still seemed like a ludicrous way out of the precarious situation. Most would have welcomed the chance if presented, but even if the opportunity danced in front of her, she would turn it down in a heartbeat. Running away was the coward's tactic.

Lisa Turpin was not your average schoolgirl.


End file.
